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TV pundits overly harsh on Arsenal or spot on?

I accept that Arsenal were not very good against Liverpool on Monday, especially in the first half when it looked like all 10 outfield players had just been woken up in the Arsenal version of the film The Hangover and nobody really knew what was going on.

So the absolute ripping we got at halftime from the Sky Sports boys was justified. But after the Gunners had put in a much better second 45 minutes, when we were the better side and probably should have won the game, I expected a bit more from the TV pundits.

However, it was if the second half had not happened and they just kept laying into us, which I personally found a bit harsh. They hardly did any analysis of the second half, as if they had seen enough and made their minds up at the break.

Then you had Gary Neville tearing into Wenger for what he called arrogance or naivety but Thierry Henry argued was belief in his players. We have all criticised the prof but we also accept that he does have strong belief in his players and they love him for it. That is probably why we have punched above our weight for years, so who is Neville to deny that?

Then you have Carragher going on about how Liverpool look like title challengers while we are some king of no hopers. Well for me that is plainly unfair and incorrect. Don´t forget that the scousers only won their first, dismal, game against Stoke with a Coutinho wonder strike. You could say that a moment of magic won it and that is why you have players like that in the team but then you could say the same for Cazorla´s pass and Ramsey´sd finish on Monday. We might not have deserved the win but we did produce that one moment of magic.

So how about a bit less bias against Arsenal from the TV pundits? Yeah right…

It was after that final that Wenger started replacing hard steel with soft ballet. I think he was so humiliated by the defeat that he experienced trauma which resulted in this stupid philosophy of ignoring tough players like Yaya for weaklings like Mert and Arteta

It took Wenger 10 year to sign top class keeper. Maybe we have to wait another 10 year to sign top striker and DM. Wenger never learns. If we had a new manager they would have found out the weakness in the squad and signed a top CB, CM and CF. Wenger fans fo u are the reason
why we are such a garbage team.

Pundits ?
I do not take them seriously.
But Gary Neville was spot on .
This team does not have a Gilberto, viera or petit kinda of figure .
It also lack the tireless garbage boys like Romford pele and llumberg who do all the hard dirty job for the Henrys to claim the glory .

It may be harsh but it’s not far off either. I mean put into context we had a great 2nd half of the season and had we done a bit better in the 1st half we would have been up there. With the way things ended with the FA cup renewed hope & ambition followed (AGAIN). Which should have been confirmed in this transfer window (AGAIN). Out of all the transfer windows this is (it’s not over yet) probably one of the most important. But yet again it’s about to end in disappointment. Cech has our only signing is a steal and will show his worth over the course of the season but him alone will not transfigure this team to win a title. Also worth mentioning the GK position wasn’t the most important one;it should have been the icing on the cake.
I agree with Wenger that exceptional & WC player is what should be targeted; but why are we the only ones who doesn’t get it done? Money is there (stadium with highest pricing per seat in England; commercial & marketing deals, UCL, TV deal, club valuation); one of the best league in the world of football, a great city & manager. So really why?
It’s obvious to everybody where we lack quality ST & DM.
1) ST: True we have 4 strikers Sanchez, Giroud, Welbeck & Walcott but the problem with that is that all 4 are not able to take us close to 85 goals in EPL which is what would be needed. Sanchez is not a pure striker and clearly better on the wings or as a #10. Welbeck has everything but the most important needed to score: composure , flair in front of goal & the question remain will he ever get it? Giroud is a good player who is clearly maximizing his potential but who clearly can’t lead to a title…I like what he does for us but let’s remember he was suppose to be #2 to Van Persie. Finally Walcott a guy who just renewed his contract but who has not started a game & you wonder why was he made one of the top earners if he is benched or does Wenger not trust to lead the line…again question marks. Clearly there is a need to fill
2)DM: Coquelin has been a pleasant surprise if not a shock last season. He does for the club something only he can and that is where the problem lies. ONLY he can. Teams are better prepared for him and his start to the season hasn’t been so great.He could have seen red x2. It’s still too early to say but will he be able to replicate what he did last term if not do even better for more games than what he had to last season? What happens if gets injured or tired…Arteta & Flamini are on the wrong side of 30 & don’t share the same profile Flamini hasn’t played for months & Arteta is clearly a sub to close out game when tempo needs to be controlled. Again clearly there is a need to fill.
You don’t get exceptional players by arguing there fee for months other teams are going to come and swoop before you know it. The transfer window is opened since July 1st and if I’m not mistaken teams prepare for this weeks if not months in advance…so WHY?

i think wenger’s trying furiously behind the curtain to get a striker. all that smoke about higuain last year, benz this year, and the fallback to welbeck shows it. but i suspect he sucks at closing out the deals. stinginess, naivete and stubborness are his enemies.
[ DM Is an even bigger mystery to me; not as hard to get as ST and we did see schneiderlin and schweinsteiger move this year. i am sorry to say, but i think wenger’s going a bit senile – he certainly has too much belief in his players and judging from the # of times we play better in H2 than H1, it seems he doesnt know how to motivate them before a game]

Those clowns (except TH14) will give us respect only if we actually win EPL trophy. Until then, this shit will be going on in on in on. I’m not denying our problem, but it’s just too early to justify anything.
They said that we’ll out from CL last season, Looserpool did (congrats Carragher!). I’m not taking tips or advice from those clowns from the start and clearly not at present. Never.

Gary Neville stated about arrogance and Henry replied by saying it was a belief and the reply Misheld belief for which he did not answer to that. Henry is being made to support arsenal’s playing style and high incompetence from the team which should have won. Wenger is not interested in the league title at all and if he was arsenal would be leading by 9 points

The manager relies on his internal payers as calls them and buys young players every window just to avoid big buys like benzema or CDM. Arsenal will not persue any player this season because Wenger is happy with options available

Henry – Arsenal need a new striker
Parlour- Arsenal need a new striker
Keown- Arsenal need a new striker
Wright- Arsenal need a new striker
Winterburn- Arsenal need a new striker
Seaman- Arsenal need a new striker
Cazorla- Arsenal need a new striker
Monreal- Arsenal need a new striker
Wenger- f** o kunts I made all of u shut ur stupid mouth. Giroud is better than Messi.

LOL he’s speaking TRUTH. Giroud was initially RVP’s BACK-UP ! He was meant to be a BENCH player. So how come we haven’t brought in a STRIKER that could walk into ANY of the big clubs first XI ??? 3 SEASONS WITHOUT RVP REPLACEMENT. THREE !!!

I don’t give dam about pundits. We should concentrate on our own business. If it is slightly true that city is buying KDB and Mou is buying Pogba and Stone then we are in big big trouble. Already they have better team than us and after signing these players they will be more stronger.

I am die hard Arsenal fan but I know we are not serious title contender. Till pre season things were looking more positive but now it is not. May be some miracle happens and we win but on paper for me City will be PL champion.

Gary Neville stated about arrogance and Henry replied by saying it was a belief and the reply Misheld belief for which he did not answer to that. Henry is being made to support arsenal’s playing style and high incompetence from the team which should have won. Wenger is not interested in the league title at all and if he was arsenal would be leading by 9 points just like city. Now that the manager got the vote from the very fans now frustrated
Enjoy the season just like last season! Arsene spoke clearly about fast start,resting alexis and got the vote from the fans 3/3 and yes Jose was right Arsene has the dream managerial job every manager likes to have.

Since day 1? You realise he took us from a slightly higher than mid table finishing season to league and cup doubles culminating in the invicibles side? You might not agree with him now but “since day 1” just says you’re a silly muppet.

Do Gunner’s support Arsenal FC or Arsene Wenger ? I suspect that a lot of us (fans) confuse the two. Wenger is an employee at Arsenal FC, the club had existed long before he was born and it shall continue to be in existence very long after he has parted. I hope that thought really settles in with us fans.

Brutal truth – I feel Neville has a soft spot for Arsenal by doing this harsh assessment and most of the supporters out there want Arsenal to be like the glory days (including myself) and properly challenge for major honors. COYG

Its not about actually winning the EPL or UCL, sometimes things dont go your way. Arsenals minimum goal should be to be “Legitimate Contenders” for both. We’ve settled for this BS for too long. You have no desire to reach the summit! #Kroenkeout

Sorry to say the TV pundits are spot on!! These issues are not only recently. This has been going on for few seasons! Wenger is so stubborn and he think this squad will win the title! 4 pts out of 9 pts, 0 goal scored for the last 2 home games are unacceptable! Giroud is not going to win Arsenal title! Arsene should know this and should know better than us! But why he is not buying? Arsene is not interested to win the BPL title! Then why bother to announce that Arsenal has a fund of 200m in the bank? This club seems like is toying the fans feelings! Fans love this club but the club doesn’t reciprocate it and it just made all Arsenal fans around the world frustrated and miserable every season! Why we need to wait almost till end of transfer window then we are serious in buying? Season tickets renew and fans hope for world class players joining and yet season after season, the same problems surface! Don’t forget Arsenal charge the highest ticket prices! As a fan of Arsenal of more than 20 years, I hope Gazidis and Arsene can give Arsenal fans some hope and get some world class players but not Kokorin in before the window is close! This club will be going further backwards if they didn’t do so! So please spend some money!

hi guys this is my first post here.i have been following this site since last year. regarding the mondays game we were abit unlucky to draw .i normally view it this way when we have a high percentage of possession we need someone with the killer instinct to apply the finishing touch and put the game to bed.At the moment only alexis can do it.but it seems he is notatch fit so wenger whould try to find a killer in the remqining transfer period

Which part of the phrase “I want to stay committed to this club” or “He is not for sale.” is not understood by most of the fans on here? Even after this, fans will say we should offer more money. Then why did Manchester City didn’t raise their offer from 40 million to 50 million for Wilshere after Wenger said that Wilshere is not for sale. Wilshere could have been a better target for them instead of De Bruyne because of home grown quota City needs to fullfil.

People just throw out some names like Lewandoski, Muller, Reus, Griezmann, even Laccazette etc. not knowing the fact that they are not for sale. Their clubs have released the statements about them(not sure about Griezmann but I know Simeone has no pressure to let him go) out in the media yet some of the fans want Wenger to waste time behind them.

but we have seen martinez sign for atletico. it shouldve been us he was signing for. i dont think wenger moved fast enough on that one. transfer window isnt his strength .
if you’re right, we better not see any striker move because we can afford just about anyone [we can afford them, but wenger wont pay: stingy, delusional, stubborn, slow]

It’s the frustration of us being nearly there and nearly men for the last 10 years that have made them seem harsh and over critical. Their desire to see us do well and challenge the dominant trio that has really turned them like most fans against Wenger who refuses to add the necessary quality to our squad to enable us really go for it. The whole world can clearly see what we need except for our blinkered Manager who I think is too scared of failure even when he buys all these qualities the team has been crying out for. Tactically clueles to even galvanise star qualities to go for the jugular and win? Who knows!

maybe he’s too scared of *success* (not failure): if he had a squad capable of the title, and they didnt get it, people would wonder whether wenger still has it. maybe by always being a bit short, he has a built-in excuse.

We cannot compete with Chelsea or Man City financially. Never. Not unless we get bought out. It’s horrifying seeing the money they can throw about. The fact weve done as well as we have against all the money of City and Chelsea and United over the last 10 years is nothing short of incredible in my eyes. Wait until Wenger leaves. Watch us fall further than UTD have/

The problems so far have been about creating chances, finishing them, carelessness in possession, having all our play restricted through the middle(Ramsey on the wing anyone?) and making too many individual defensive errors(Cech, OX:first game, Chambers:3rd game). I see three ways to correct the errors(opinions of an armchair expert):

1. Use correct tactics: proper wide players instead of Aaron Ramsey. One of Ozil, Cazorla and Ramsey has to dropped and am afraid to say on technical ability and contribution it has to be one of Ozil or Ramsey. Its a hard decision but one that has to be taken immediately to improve our play.

2. I can tell when Arsenal are passing badly that we are going to have a very tough day. There is no presence of alternate tactics. If Wenger see’s that we are struggling to play our usual possession football, instead of allowing the team to get frustrated and concede a stupid goal(West Ham), why just he doesn’t tell the players to give the opposition the ball and try and play counter. We have pace to do it. Wenger isn’t utilizing a large part of his arsenal(no pun intended).

3. Buy in the transfer market. A new signing would bring in a feel good factor. A good DM, a striker just anything. I am realistic enough now to see we wont be buying both(DM & Striker). One would bring much needed lift and freshness to the team.

It’s only three games into the season. Instead of throwing in the towel just after 3 games and conceding defeat, there are a lot of things Wenger can do even with just this group of players to be successful.

You’re a fool. Conceding possession to play counter football is counter intuitive football. Inviting pressure is always dangerous and never wanted BUT you can choose how deep you start your defence, how high you start your attack and how wide you play your team. Counter attacking football is played narrow with a deep defence and a high attack. Granted, we could do that, but we won’t suddenly concede possession in order to do it because, low and behold, that means the opposition will get chances to attack and you will never have control. Deliberately losing possession to counter attack is beyond stupid.

That said – counter football is also most productive against a team playing a high line. Liverpool did not. All game they wanted to retreat to play counter against us. It was only that we invited them on so much in the first half that they were even getting attacks! Against teams not in the top 6 counter attack is virtually negligible. NO team plays a high line against us or our regular play decimates them (see West Brom/Aston Villa). We have to STRETCH a team who compacts, not just sit there and let them take the draw (which they are regularly happy to take).

Otherwise you’re just repeating the norm. Please know a little about tactics before dictating we play a tactic that won’t work if the opposition does not attack us…

A little politeness would go a long way in putting across your point. How is a tactic to break the defensive shape of a team counter-intuitive? The point of our one-touch passing game is to stretch defenses and make them lose shape. On a day when our passing clearly isn’t sharp and not working like West Ham and Liverpool(first half), why is it a bad idea to invite pressure? They commit more men forward then they have to and we get a chance to counter. Our defense should be good enough to deny them space to actually score. Mourinho teams have done it over ten years and been very successful. You would be branded boring but its ok to be winning boring matches 1-0 rather than being naive and getting frustrated losing 2-0, every once in a while. We have the players with pace to do it. See counters started by the team(Sanchez and Ozil on two separate occasions that failed against Liverpool). We are just not good at it cause probably we don’t practice counter-attacking so much. The players make wrong decisions when presented with the opportunity every so often.

There are clearly TWO ways to break the shape of a team that defends deep. One is patient build up play with solid possession and working our way into the box(our usual method) and the OTHER is inviting pressure and counter-attacking with pace. Please go and watch Borussia Dortmund, Mourinho teams like Inter Milan, Chelsea etc and how they play against deep defenses before coming here and spouting false absolution’s about football with presumptuously.

No, you’ve failed to grasp the difference between counter attack and defending deep. Mourinho is boring for a WHOLE different reason than that he plays counter attacking football. The reason I called you a fool is because you are being foolish – you NEVER give the ball away on purpose. The reason I will continue is because the only person talking in absolutes (beyond the concept of giving up posession on purpose…) is you. Please understand there is a difference between “inviting pressure” by retreating your backline to the edge of the box faster while initiating pressure on the ball closer to your own goal versus “giving up possession” which is what you initially stated. Your simple misunderstanding of that from the start leads me to the reasons you continue to fall short of tactical knowledge.

Firstly there are a TONNE of ways to break a defence down, not 1 or 2. The term stretch in itself covers many many options but each has a counter or a block which you then have to adjust to accordingly. Counter attack is one tactic that stretches the gap between midfield, defence and goalkeeper, but it is not necessarily correct in all circumstance because the opposition may not commit players forward to enable the counter to be effective (see Chelsea).

Secondly, as I just outlined, counter attacking football is rarely good if the opponents are not committing players. Often we find ourselves in matches where the opponents will not push up their wing backs and use a shielding DM, allowing maybe 4 or 5 players into the attack. This negates a counter attack’s efficiency and is the ultimate plan of MOST teams in the EPL when playing us regardless of if we play counter or not. If we change our tactics, it will not make the opponents alter there’s accordingly to suddenly let us win. If they want a draw and we allow undue pressure the result will be a draw, especially if our counters are just the standard pace and pass tactics.

Thirdly you totally misunderstand why Chelsea are boring and how they play football. Chelsea have two standard tactics and neither is particularly cavalier. Against big teams they hold their back four very tight and do not let them progress up the pitch. Usually one of the wing backs is allowed to go into a “deep” crossing position but most of the attack is done by the front 5. The DM and back 4 retain their defence. Against smaller teams the wingers are allowed more leniency and you usually see Chelsea leave only 4 players in reserve at a given time. This creates a boring game because when Chelsea lose the ball, they retreat back to defend, but are usually 90% set up already. They recycle the ball when they win it back and begin the slow knock on the door again. Rarely do they throw tooth and nail at a lesser team to get a goal…unless they’re losing. Against big teams they always set out to get a draw and nick it if they can. Same tactic – never get caught unawares, focus on letting the skill players play and the defence stays rigid. It’s simple football but relies on 5 players up top doing the job of 6 or 7 players. AND they usually manage it.

Now my final point is when you talk about Chelsea/Dortmund etc. playing against deep defences. I’ve NEVER seen any of these teams drop off and give up possession against lesser opposition and then counter. NEVER. I’ve seen them nick the odd goal that way but the normal tactic is play wide, play fast and let the skill players decide the game. I can think of plenty of games where Chelsea were frustrated by deep teams because they couldn’t break them down – the West Ham “did not want to play football” match of last year does spring to mind. The major difference between Arsenal and Chelsea against deep teams isn’t that Chelsea give up possession to sit on their box and then counter but that they have multiple ways to stretch and penetrate. Wide players getting in crosses to players, set pieces, big switches of play to isolate a defender 1 on 1 with a winger, direct runs into the box with good footwork etc.

Basically what I’m saying is – you’ve got some misunderstanding about the tactics you’re talking about and are advocating TOTALLY the wrong idea about fixing our current problems. I’ll be the first to admit counter attacking football and Arsenal should go together like cookies and cream but ever since the invicibles teams have refused adamantly to play high defensive lines against us and counters do not work if the opposition has a defensive 5 or 6 set up near the edge of their box when you finally get the ball up there. Counter is all about getting 1:1 against the opposition with them having to back peddle. If they are deep there is no space to go into and a higher chance of not reaching that 1:1 ratio. I am not saying counter attacking football is bad – I’m saying you’ve got the wrong end of the stick about how it works.

versus newcastle, would love to see a giroud-less lineup.
put sanchez/walcott/ox in the front line: its v. fast and built to counterattack.
giroud can come on at 60th minute.
[no more f**king subs at 80th min]

When are we going to stop accepting mediocrity, “we had a good end to the season” or “we started well but…..”, come on, the last few league winners had one thing in common and that was consistency, Arsenal is so far from consistent it makes my eyes water. At the end of the day, consistency is the responsibility of Arsenal managent, from the board laying out its expectations to the manager demanding that the expectations are met, if not changes should be made. There is a common theme with our approach every year, which is not addressing all our needs, CDM is needed Wenger says no, he then loan out the only true CDMA we have only to call him back and then realize ooh, guess we needed a cdm. Long and short is the changes that are needed maybe that of managent (not necessarily Wenger)

1. They had a point – we were pretty damn awful. First half awful defensively, second half pretty piss poor attacking wise.

2. There are EASY rectifications that can be made – stretch the opposition by using width, buy a player who can play towards and away from goal up top. Protect Cazorla better by playing him CAM and putting a more battling CM next to our DM in matches where we need to dominate the midfield. Etc.

3. We’ve been an almost team for 10 years and we’re easy targets. We are so close to being great, and fall, and it’s great to mock that because it’s like picking on a giant who can’t hit back. If Arsenal suddenly rise up they can say we’re great BUT have this weakness, but until we do, they’re just right on the money every time getting to laugh at our expense. They can’t be wrong about how Arsenal are because if we succeed they’ve said all along we should but that we weren’t – it’s a great case of being able to switch between whichever band wagon is shinier at the time.

THAT SAID…they were totally out of line.

The game ended 0 – 0. Liverpool did not capitalize on an ABYSMAL first half by Arsenal. We gave them chances – they did not orchestrate them. The result is identical for both teams – neither team succeeded and both teams failed. SO how can anything positive be said about Liverpool?

In the second half we dominated them. Arsenal woke up after having been poor in defence and we rolled through Liverpool. They barely got chances to score, we had plenty. And these weren’t chances given to us by Liverpool handing us the ball in the final third. This was us playing through them. So why, I might ask, are Liverpool congratulated and Arsenal said to be bad?

If anything this showed me exactly where the weaknesses in BOTH teams lie. Liverpool are good, but not great. They have potential on their day to cause upsets but are generally a bit lower quality across the whole park and their shining gem, Mr Coutinho, can be wrapped up easily if the defence does not allow him acres of space and time.

This game said more to me about Liverpool not being good enough to be title contenders then it did Arsenal. That was Liverpool on a good day. They failed to score past us, they barely challenged us once we got our asses out of the mud and most importantly, they would have lost had it not been for a poor offside call. Ultimately Arsenal can still go away, add 1 or 2 players and tighten our team up. Liverpool can’t really afford more transfers in, and they’ll do well to get into the top 4.

Carragher is on crack if after 2 dubious 1-0 wins and a 0-0 draw he believes Liverpool can actually win the title. They are MILES below City and this is before we acknowledge they’re on a lucky streak atm. Some pundits do bemuse me.

Why is Jamie Carragher even a pundit? All he does is gas up LFC lol who cares what the pundits say because they all seem to have an agenda against us for whatever reason! Probably from us schooling them on the pitch and them chasing shadows lol how can Jamie think LFC look like contenders?? LOL look how poor we played 1st half and still scored a goal, dominated them in the 2nd, that’s not title contenders, they not even top 4 contenders lool we played poor and still would of been 1.0 up at the break, so what does that say? COYG